"Used by the Ocean Shield ship sonar, caught signals, which presumably may serve as "flight recorders", - told to journalists on Monday a former commander of the Air Force of Australia Angus Houston, reports Interfax agency.

"Obviously, this is the most promising lead. We have a visual countdown on the screen, and we also have the audio signal, which for me sounds like an emergency beacon," - he said. According to Houston, we may need a few days to confirm or refute the hypothesis of Australian Air Force.

Sonar of the Ocean Shield ship caught two separate signals in the Indian Ocean near the west coast of Australia, one on Saturday night, the second early on Sunday morning. The first signal lasted for 2 hours and 20 minutes before it was lost. The ship then turned around, and once again managed to catch the signal, the duration of which was 13 minutes. On Monday, the Ocean Shield continued to scrutinize a small area of the ocean in an attempt to catch another signal.